The Today, Explained podcast is taking a deep dive into the significant styles of the 2024 election through the lens of 7 battlefield states. We've heard up until now from citizens in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Arizona, and today we turn to Wisconsin, where rural citizens might make the distinction.
With less than a month till Election Day, Wisconsin Democrats are putting energy and time into parts of the state they regularly lose by double digits in the hope of reaching the rural citizens who went sturdily for Donald Trump in the last 2 governmental elections. All indications suggest that these citizens will do so once again, however that hasn't stopped Democrats from marketing increasingly in rural districts to claw back as lots of citizens as they can.
According to Rob Mentzer, the rural neighborhoods press reporter for Wisconsin Public Radio, Democrats are clear-eyed about the reality that they probably will not win in rural parts of Wisconsin. By narrowing the margins, however, they wish to “lose by less”– and hence win statewide.
If that method prospers, it would be a huge offer. Wisconsin was long a progressive fortress, a wave of Republican assistance in the early 2000s changed it from part of Democrats' Midwestern “blue wall” into a battlefield state frequently chosen by razor-thin margins.
In 2020, Biden won the state by simply over half a portion point, thanks in big part to high turnout in Madison, Milwaukee, and other cities. If Harris and incumbent Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin, who is up for reelection, can make gains with rural citizens this time, it would broaden their course to triumph in the state.
Today, Explained host Sean Rameswaram talked with Mentzer about what he's speaking with rural citizens in north-central Wisconsin as Democrats make a play for their assistance.
Below is an excerpt of their discussion, modified for length and clearness. There's far more in the complete podcast, so listen to Today, Explained anywhere you get your podcasts, consisting of Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
Sean Rameswaram
Can we simply talk truly rapidly about what Wisconsin appeared like, I do not understand, before Donald Trump? It utilized to be a progressive location?
Rob Mentzer
Wisconsin has a long history of progressive politics. From the turn of the 20th century, it was really among the birth places of the progressive motion. Robert La Follette was a populist guv, later on United States senator. He was precious by the state's farmers, by backwoods. And you can draw a straight line from that progressive motion in Wisconsin to a great deal of the New Deal legislation and into contemporary progressivism, for sure.
Sean Rameswaram
And what altered? Is it as basic as Donald Trump or exists more to that story?
Rob Mentzer
I believe that it returns a bit additional than that.
